CEO: Melissa Clark-Reynolds ("AlphaMonkey")
Melissa is a mom, an environmental advocate and an entrepreneur.
Her passion for our planet is profound, and reflects in how she is raising her daughter, how she gives back to her community, and how she is growing her business. One of the first two New Zealanders trained up as an Ambassador for Al Gore's Climate Project, Melissa has presented The Inconvenient Truth over 20 times to more than 2000 New Zealanders to raise awareness and motivate people to take action. MiniMonos is an opportunity for her to combine her dedication to sustainability with her 20 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur.
Melissa incorporated MiniMonos in 2009 out of a desire to create games that have a positive impact on children.
Email Melissa: melissac@minimonos.com
Chief Technical Officer: Greg Montgomery ("Monty")
Greg is a titan of information technology with 15 years of experience, including the development and implementation of SafeTsmart, a health and safety product, into the Australian market. He is committed to shaping a better future for the planet, through helping kids to discover the impact of their and their parents' choices.
Email Greg: gregm@minimonos.com
Chief Marketing Officer: Kaila Colbin ("MissDawg")
Kaila is a communications crusader with a focus on conversational marketing and global social networking. As a New Yorker living in New Zealand, she understands the need for environmental literacy in big cities as well as rural areas, and is passionate about creating a world in which a healthy environment coexists with a strong economy. Following in Melissa's footsteps, Kaila has also become a Climate Project ambassador and now presents the Inconvenient Truth presentation to groups including schoolchildren.
Kaila's purpose in life is to be an uplifting presence, and her work with MiniMonos is helping her achieve that.
Email Kaila: kailac@minimonos.com
Community Manager and Monkey Camp Mother: Andrea Deely ("EcoMom")
Andrea loves to connect good causes with good people. She is a mother, has a background in marketing and communications and for the past few years has donated her time to childrens' charities such as Koru Care.
Awed by her son's passion for the environment, Andrea thinks it's fantastic to see kids leading the way to a greener future, armed with knowledge their parents didn't have—but they still love to play. How cool is that?!
Email Andrea: andread@minimonos.com
Game Designer and Writer: Deb Todd ("Bulabula")
Deb started her career writing Saturday morning cartoons for the Pink Panther and soon transitioned to becoming a world-renowned childrens game expert. She has worked with some very famous characters, including Curious George, Blue of Blues Clues, and all of the 101 Dalmatians, and has created many award-winning titles for children and grownups. Deb has 27 published titles in books, games, and television, and loves bridging the worlds of technology and entertainment and education, especially for kids.
Deb's passion is designing fun education into games, and believes that playing games can be a great way for kids to learn!
World Builder: Paul Abrahams ("Badgerfox")
Paul is one of our technical gurus and father to a gorgeous baby girl! Known as "Badgerfox" on MiniMonos, he's one of the most popular staff members on the island. His wife is helping him learn to appreciate where our food comes from by introducing him to the concept of a town garden (otherwise referred to as an edible oasis).
Paul is a complete gaming addict who's been making game systems since he was 7 and building commercial software for 10 years, and MiniMonos brings together his multiple passions -- games, kids, and a passion for the environment -- in one place.
World Artist: David Wheadon ("Weado")
David is our world artist, and the man who makes all our cool treehouse items! He's got two boys, one 8 and one 7 years old. His visual aesthetics show up in web apps (he's been designing them for more than ten years), Photoshop, and his love of photography.
David loves wildlife and often takes his boys out looking for spiders and wetas, and never says no to his wife's cooking (burp!).
Moderator: Gwen Walton-Wegener ("Manx")
Gwen is one of our moderators dedicated to keeping MiniMonos a safe and fun place for kids to enjoy. She describes herself as a geek who enjoys mmorpg-type games and reading every day. As a huge animal lover, she is owned by three cats (one of which is a manx), a turtle and a few dozen fish. Her passion for animals is one of the main reasons she is striving to have a more sustainable and eco-friendly life.
Email Gwen: gwenw@minimonos.com
Moderator: Lilian Tran ("Viper")
Lilian adores kids and babies, and especially enjoys seeing how happy and innocent they are to all of the negative things in the world. She likes to be able to inform and help others about how we can treat the Earth with greater kindness.
Email Lilian: L.Tran@minimonos.com
Moderator: Ellen B. ("LittleStone")
Ellen is our newest member of the moderation team. She loves playing on MiniMonos, making new monkeys feel welcome, and helping people stay safe online - she has been using the internet since it was invented!
She is passionate about making sure we take action now to protect the environment, by trying to be as sustainable and eco-friendly in her own life as possible, and by helping others learn what they need to do to help. When she's not working, she enjoys knitting and sewing. Most of all, she likes dressing up in crazy costumes in real life, as well as on MiniMonos Island.
Email Ellen: ellenb@minimonos.com
Party Master: Jacob ("Bananatastic")
Jacob has been involved with virtual worlds since the age of 12. From creating a blog with over 4.5 million impressions in less than two years to throwing the biggest parties in virtual world history, Jacob is well known on the largest virtual worlds on the web! As well as being an eco-friendly Party Master on MiniMonos, he's also the president of the "Project Green" club at his high school.
Throwing parties and having fun is what Jacob does best! From competitions to theme weeks to hosting our weekly web show, Jacob plays a bananatastic role in the MiniMonos community.
Illustrator: Richard Lemmens ("Tuck")
Richard is one of our illustrators and has been drawing cartoons since he found which end of the pencil not to stick up his nose. He loves to see any new artwork by MiniMonos fans up in the art gallery and to play pranks on Badgerfox in the office.
Illustrator: Alicia Zink ("Zinky")
As one of our illustrators, Alicia draws a lot of monkeys (and many other awesome things!). She loves to draw and carries a sketchbook wherever she goes. She likes to chat to other monkeys on MiniMonos and her monkey, Zinky, can often be spotted in games of Monkey Fist.
Junior Developer: Luke Smith ("Chansu")
As a junior member of the technical team, Luke helps to bring MiniMonos to life and keep it ticking over. Luke has been fascinated by games and virtual spaces since programming text adventures in the 90s, and this passion for play led him to qualifications in both computer science and digital media design.
Luke has a keen interest in the energy crisis, and likes to save energy in many small ways. Two things you are likely to hear him say are "that would make a great game!" and "take the stairs!" For Luke, working for MiniMonos is a rare opportunity to combine creative and technical challenges with making a positive impact on the planet.
